NECROMANCY (1972)
(a.k.a. THE WITCHING)
Viewing date: 12-19-2002
Posting date: 5-4-2002

A woman and her husband move to a small town that is run by a Satanic cult.

Bert I. Gordon takes another stab at horror with this witchcraft opus at least partially inspired by ROSEMARY’S BABY (one of the video titles to this movie is ROSEMARY’S DISCIPLES). I’ve never considered Gordon a great director, but his science fiction and fantasy movies have a certain charm to them; I’m less taken with his horror work, however, and this movie certainly doesn’t change my mind. It’s talky and dull until it gets near the end, where it starts getting messy and confused.

I do have to reserve some judgment on this one; the copy I was able to snag was a reissue made about a decade later that added several ridiculous nude sequences, though as far as I can tell, the movie was left largely intact other than that. There’s a scene with rats in it, which shows that Bert I. Gordon had seen WILLARD. Orson Welles is on hand; I hope he took home a good paycheck.